Glossary of Home Theater Terminology

Glossary of Audio, Video and Home Theater Terms

There is a very large vocabulary of technical and descriptive terms that go with home theater. We've included the terms that you are most likely to encounter. If you are very technically involved you may find some of the more technical terms omitted from our list.

QAM - Quadrature Amplitude Modulation. AM Radio uses amplitude modulation to encode a signal onto a carrier wave. In a similar fashion, signal is encoded on two AM waves that are out of phase; while one wave has a peak, the other has a valley. This method of encoding is common in cable and satellite transmissions.